Michael and David are hoping that you will help build the project by adding your comments to the essays, to answer the question, What do you think librarians need to know to succeed?

Alison provided a wealth of data to illustrate the current trends in mobile reference services and referenced the nearly 100 libraries offering SMS (text) reference service listed on the Library Success Wiki. There were a handful of questions raised during the webinar about whether or not the 160-character limit allows for an adequate reference exhange or if it only serves to provide quick answers to quick queries.

There are multiple responses to these questions in the recent Library Journal article by Ellyssa Kroski which asks, Text Message Reference: Is It Effective? In the article, Ellyssa references interviews with a half a dozen or so academic reference librarians and presents their answer as a resounding YES! She summarized:

• The 160-character limit does not seem to be an impediment; librarians simply send multiple messages or ask patrons to call or come into the library for further help with more complex questions.
• Libraries are receiving a wide variety of questions via text messaging such as troubleshooting, directional, circulation, and reference queries, with some libraries receiving between 50-90 questions per month via patrons’ mobile devices.
• And it doesn’t seem to matter that the reference interview may take multiple text exchanges, according to these librarians—the content and quality of the answers is more important than the medium of delivery.

Whether or not your library is providing text message reference, I think the verdict is clear. The libraries who remain technologically nimble in our changing times are where their users are.

Join us on September 15 for Building the Digital Branch: Guidelines to Transform Your Website for the 21st Century, a webinar brought to you in special collaboration with ALA TechSource and WebJunction-Kansas.

David will present on the process his web team used at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library (KS) to transform their outdated website into a 21st century digital branch. He’ll address the differences between a website and a digital branch, and describe the redesign process – everything from the introductory planning stages of overhauling their website to the process of actually “doing stuff” at the new digital branch.

Register for the webinar »
Read the excerpt: What Is a Digital Branch, Anyway? »

June 10, 2:00 Eastern: Technology Stewardship @ Your Library
Join presenter Nancy White co-author of the forthcoming book Digital Habitats: Stewarding Technology for Communities, (with Etienne Wenger and John E. Smith) for this free webinar. Nancy is recognized internationally for her research exploring online communities today, and in her work as a technology steward, designer and builder of online interaction spaces. In this webinar, Nancy will focus on librarians as community technology stewards. She will offer practical steps for you to begin to understand your community, assess the technology needs of your community, and how to select, configure, and support the online technologies your community uses.

View the archive of this webinar »

June 16, 2:00 Eastern: Social Learning with Libraries on WebJunction
For the past six years, library staff have been using tools at WebJunction.org to connect with each other and build new skills for their work in libraries. Meanwhile, the dramatic growth of web-based technology has changed patron expectations of libraries, which means library staff have new needs as well. Join Chrystie Hill, community director at WebJunction, as she describes how WebJunction.org has evolved alongside these trends, to become an integrated ‘learning community’ that’s open, affordable, and always on. Chrystie will also present broader trends in learning and training, demonstrate how our members are using online tools to support their staff or their own professional development, and discuss with you how to shape the future of staff training and library services.

View the archive of this webinar »

June 30, 2:00 Eastern: Bringing Web 2.0 into Academic Libraries
When the goal is to be “where they are, when they need us,” what does that require at a university library in 2009? As students, staff and faculty move their lives online, university libraries must choose whether to move with them or get left behind. But where is the value in a university library when Google is the new ready reference desk and the libraries’ resources are increasingly digitized? How does a library remain relevant in a socially networked academic world? From their perspective as, respectively, virtual reference and e-learning librarians, Amanda Clay Powers (Mississippi State Univ. Libraries) and Ellen Hampton (Baylor Univ. Libraries) will discuss how libraries can readjust and move their most important resources online—their people. By using social networks and other web-based technologies, libraries can become a value-added member of their community— both online and in person. By using these new tools, librarians can once again hover by their reference stacks with an offer to help that’s just a click away.

Register now for this webinar »

And while you’ve got your calendar up, add this one too: Crouching Tigers, Reading Dragons: Creating a Reading Challenge Program. On July 7, join guest presenters from Seattle and British Columbia as they share their experiences and expertise with the Global Reading Challenge/Reading Link Challenge, a program that encourages team building, reading for retention, and cooperation between school and public libraries. Using a “quiz bowl” format, the program has successfully challenged teams of young readers across the country for over a decade. The presenters will demonstrate how the program can fit into your library’s programming, regardless of size or budget; and how it can be done in one building, between public libraries and public schools, or across state or international borders. The program emphasizes books that reflect a diversity of backgrounds, and encourages 4th and 5th grade students of all reading abilities to engage in the “sport” of reading. Guest Presenters: Mary Palmer, Global Reading Challenge Coordinator, The Seattle Public Library (WA) and Ada Con, Diversity Services & Programming Coordinator, Fraser Valley Regional Library (BC).

Register now for this webinar »

I also wanted to take a second to personally thank every single one of you that have tried the site out during its first week. We have seen huge amounts of activity this week and are so happy to see folks diving in. We are also very pleased to get your feedback as well. Most things are working well on the site, but please know that we are working very hard to respond to and address any question, concerns and bugs that have come up. And we thank you very much for your patience in those instances. This is truly a library community resource and you telling us what you think, how to make it better and what you would like to see in the future will be what helps make that future happen. So please keep contacting us, keep kicking the tires and continue to dive in. See you on Your, Mine and OUR “My WebJunction”!

I had an excellent day at ALA, meeting and interacting with hordes of great librarians. A highlight was the Library 2.0 Café where we enjoyed a fruitful experience melding our Anaheim World Café session with a live Wimba webinar. None of our worries about the hotel internet connection materialized, allowing the technology to slip into the background while we concentrated on the conversation at hand. Stay tuned for a link to the session archive and a more indepth post from Jen.

Though the lack of technical glitches was probably my biggest victory of the day, the most fun I had was during Jen, Jim, and my impromptu boa and fan giveaway. What started as a way to lighten our load while shuffling conference materials to the exhibit floor quickly turned into a mini meet-and-greet. The boas didn’t get many takers from the sweaty crowd waiting for shuttle, but the fans were well received by ALA attendees (as well as the area cabbies).

The experience also brought home a concept we discussed at the Café session today: 2.0 doesn’t have to be complex. In a world of tight library budgets, improvisation has its place, too.

For example, take the goal of keeping cool in this LA heat. Sure, we could strive to develop a lightweight, solar-powered, personal air conditioning unit. And maybe with unlimited resources and a couple years of time we might even succeed. Or, we could just staple some tongue depressors to cardstock and start down the the path to cooling right now.

The showcase cooling system may someday have its day in the sun. But for now the low-budget fans are meeting the need.

Stay tuned for a full review of the session (complete with summaries of the flipchart notes, AND video), but in the meantime, there’s an archive to the virtual portion of the session: 2.0 Cafe Archive and some good stuff collecting in the 2.0 Cafe wiki. Thanks to all for your participation and don’t forget, keep the conversation alive!

Excited about the great social interaction and learning that occurs when 30,000 librarians get together, but disappointed you’ll miss out because because you can’t attend ALA this year? WebJunction hopes to ease some of your pain by presenting our Library 2.0 Café program live via Wimba Classroom.

You can bet that the WJ team will blog, Twitter, and flickr as much ALA as humanly possible. And though the turnaround time on these sharing technologies has become faster, they are still essentially asynchronous in nature. Their speed, volume, and content richness can almost help you feel there, but watching (and interacting) as events unfold live is even better.

That’s why we are looking forward to physical/virtual blending of our 2.0 Café program, an unconference-style, facilitated, shared conversation based on the World Café model. Produced in conjunction with MaintainIT, this particular event is an opportunity to take a practical look at all the “cool,” high-potential tools we’ve all been seeing this year and together develop ways to utilize those tools to help us engage our communities.

Event Logistics

At the Anaheim portion (Sheraton Park Hotel, Palm Ballroom, Saturday 6/28 1:30-3:30, Pacific), attendees will be grouped around café tables covered in poster paper, with markers at the ready. Participants In the Wimba Classroom will have the Wimba whiteboard and chat. Table hosts in both locations will help keep the conversation moving and engaging. A glossary and café menu are provided, along with best practices that encourage participants to:

• Use real or imagined examples.
• Think of all stakeholders—library staff, patrons, and the entire community.
• Suspend assumptions and welcome differences.
• Listen to your inner voice.
• Engage your imagination.
• PLAY! Doodle, draw, have fun.

We expect the blending to take shape from the get-go as we designate a Wimba table in Anaheim and team that table with the participants in the online Wimba Classroom.

Physical and Virtual Get Mixed up

In Anaheim, participants will rotate from table to table; we’ll mic the Wimba table and broadcast the audio to the webinar room via VOIP. We also plan to share paper-drawn doodles and notes via webcam. From the online side we plan to project the Wimba room action on a screen at the conference, allowing Anaheim café participants to follow the chat, whiteboard drawings, and 2.0 inspiration coming directly from the Wimba online participants! If all goes according to plan, we should see some nice sharing between physical and virtual café attendees.

All that is neededto make this blending a reality is your participation! The Saturday lawn mowing can wait! Block out a couple hours and come down to the Wimba Classroom Café . It’s a perfect time to share your ideas, questions, and energy about real-world 2.0 services.

Adventures in 2.0

Since trying new things is so very 2.0, I should also admit we’re feeling a little trepidation about making the technical part of this blending work. As this is a totally low-budget, under-the-radar project, we’re highly reliant on a standard hotel net tap. Experienced virtual conference producers would probably recommend at least one backup connection, but really, what’s the fun in that?. Seriously, it’s 2008 and we’re rolling from major corporate hotel across the street from Disneyland. There’s no reason for it not to work, so expect good things.

Worst case scenario is that we have a great Wimba 2.0 Café session, a great Anaheim 2.0 session, do some great blending in the wiki, and learn a whole bunch about blended conferencing in the process. Frankly that sounds pretty good, but I have feeling we’re going to see a lot more going on (and in real time, too).

Tune in and see what happens!

Resources for the Café

• Instructions for joining the WJ Community Wimba Classroom for the café session
• 2.0 Café wiki workspace
• 2.0 Café menu

Oh, one final mention: If you are airborne during the session and just happen to be on American Airlines Flight 2274 or 4049, make sure you track down Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran. She’s volunteered to be the in-flight café (seatback-tray) table host for all wayward 2.0 travelers!

One of the key things we learned with Learning 2.0 is that the best learning, the learning that sticks, spreads, and becomes viral is the learning that happens outside of the classroom. Think about your own job. How much of what you know was learned in a classroom? If you’re like most people you learned on the job–from a co-worker, from observation, from experience. We know that most learning takes place outside the four walls of a classroom, yet we seem to spend most of our time preparing for the training that goes on inside a classroom.

I hope you will join me next week for a free webinar hosted by WebJunction called Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library. During this hour we’ll explore the differences between training and learning, discover why learning is important, and I’ll share with you some tips for transforming your library from a training organization to a learning organization.

- Lori Reed, Training Specialist for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County

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Read more about Lori on her website, www.librarytrainer.com.

To find out more about this webinar and how to register, visit the WebJunction Learning Webinar page.

This time we’re highlighting an issue near and dear to my heart as a borderline problem patron—online fine/fee payment options. True confession: we’ve got four high-powered library users in the family and well, we pay a lot of late fees.

Let me say I don’t begrudge the fines at all. In fact, I wish I could take care of them more quickly and conveniently—such as when I’m reserving and renewing materials online. That’s why I was so happy to see WebJunction member mckeogh bring up what I consider a very Library 2.0 topic:

“I was wondering if any library has instituted a system that allows patrons to pay their fees (i.e. overdue fees) online. Has anyone done this? If so, what have been the challenges? What system, software do you use?”

If you have any thoughts or input on the topic, please join the original conversation in the discussion forum or comment right here in the blog. (I’m personally wondering if any libraries out there take PayPal or Google checkout—chime in if you know of any place doing so).

As always, if you have if you have a question you want to ask the larger WebJunction community or you see an interesting question coming in, please post it in the Question of the Week topic.

As Darwin discovered, it’s not necessarily the swiftest or strongest or largest species that survive; it is those most adaptable to change. The dangerous ideas conversation is all about adaptation and change. It begins with the question “What if …?”

What if librarians would promote and participate in the development of Wikipedia?
What if we made decisions that are not based on scarcity?
What if libraries large and small invest together to adopt open source solutions?
What if teens in the library were our partners instead of our problem?
What if we learned to advertise the allure of libraries as successfully as soft drinks and junk food?

(This is just a sampling of the provocative questions raised.)

Half of the “what ifs” above came from the audience as a result of the refreshing level of interactivity. (What if all conference sessions stimulated participation from the audience?) Questioning assumptions is contagious and uncomfortable. There was anxiety and reaction mixed with excitement. In the atmosphere of brainstorming “unthinkable thoughts,” the point is to confront the discomfort, find the opportunities, and then move forward with actions.

One audience member suggested that the next PLA (2010) should be totally focused on “what if?” Someone else said we can’t wait that long—that the next PLA should be one grand discussion of the results of two years of action.

Catch the fever at whatiflibs.wetpaint.com.

*Presenters: Deirdre Routt/Omaha PL, Stacey Aldrich/California State Library, Brian Auger/Howard County Library, Amy de Groff/Howard County Library, Rivkah Sass/Omaha PL